Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
The Moonshots Podcast goes behind the scenes of the world's greatest superstars, thinkers and entrepreneurs to discover the secrets to their success. We deconstruct their success from mindset to daily habits so that we can apply it to our lives. Join us as we 'learn out loud' from Elon Musk, Brene Brown to emerging talents like David Goggins.
00:00:05:00 - 00:00:33:04
Unknown
Hello and welcome to the Moon Shots Master series. It's episode 25. I'm your co-host, Mike Parsons. And as always, I'm joined by my IS and Freeland. Good morning, Mike. Hey, good morning, Mike. Good morning, Listeners, subscribers and everybody who's out there just trying to learn perhaps the secrets to success. Mike, I think we've got yet another action packed master series episode ahead of us today, don't we?
00:00:33:06 - 00:01:10:19
Unknown
Oh, I think getting into what it really takes to succeed mind, body and soul, it's complete. It's all in its 101%. And Mark, we're doing something very special. We are focusing on one of our special, perhaps even one of our most favorite experts only. That's right. We are digging into on this master series, episode 25, not only the secrets of success, but specifically orientated around the work, the teaching, the experience of Andrew Huberman and Mike.
00:01:10:19 - 00:01:46:20
Unknown
We did do a show on Andrew Huberman back at the beginning of January, but I think it's fair to say of all the individuals that we can look at on YouTube and we can look at online. Andrew Huberman is one of those individuals, a neuroscientist, individual who has done so much studying content. He's really pulled out a lot of the tools from a scientific perspective and communicates them in a way that you and I and all of our members and listeners really get a sense of the experience that he has in his labs.
00:01:47:00 - 00:02:11:14
Unknown
And that's the big call out here. He has not only his own YouTube podcast platforms and so on, he has his own laboratory. Mike So all our moonshots individuals that we can learn in and specifically look at from a scientific perspective, I would say Dr. Andrew Huberman is definitely up there when it comes to understanding some of the nuances of neurobiology.
00:02:11:16 - 00:02:37:07
Unknown
And I think success is going to land sweetly within that space. Andrew Oberman What do you say? Like I say, I am so excited that getting into the science of success with none other than Dr. Andrew Huberman and what you've got ahead of you in this show, all our dear viewers, listeners and members, is a journey into it.
00:02:37:07 - 00:03:00:01
Unknown
For me, it's like a shortcut. Mark Like Dr. Andrew Huberman has done so much work. Literally, any topic you bring up around the science of health and success is like, Well, there's a study that was done right. He just knows his stuff so well. But the point here is he looks at the data and he is able to translate that into say, here's what you need to do personally.
00:03:00:01 - 00:03:21:01
Unknown
One of the ones that really has stuck with me is and we actually uncovered this one on our previous show that we did on him is he actually said, look, here are all the things you need to do to feel more alert and more ready during the day. And he talked about hydration. He talked about exercise, movement and diet and all those things.
00:03:21:03 - 00:03:40:09
Unknown
But then he had this other thing he said, A lot of studies have found that if you expose yourself to natural sunlight in the first hour or two, if the morning without your sunglasses on, that this has a really good effect on your level of alertness throughout the day. So do you know what I do whenever I get the chance?
00:03:40:13 - 00:04:00:12
Unknown
I'm not exposing myself to Sunshine in the first few hours of the day, and I think I can get that done like four or five times a week. And that's a simple way of which he has taken the university's scientific studies and papers, and he comes with a really practical piece of advice. We have a ton of that today, Mike.
00:04:00:14 - 00:04:23:21
Unknown
We have so much of that. So if you want to get into the scientific side of success, you know, this isn't the personal journey of David Goggins. This is sort of a different way into success. This is the science, the research and the studies all made and done and produced and synthesized, summarized by Dr. Andrew Human. Mark I'm ready to go raw.
00:04:24:02 - 00:04:48:12
Unknown
I think you've set us up perfectly. Mike. So let's continue this amazing vibe and dig into the details as well as the knowledge of Dr. Andrew Huberman. In this first clip, we're going to hear him speaking to Jess Cavalier, who's a world class physical therapist. And Andrew and Jeff are both going to be breaking down. So you and I and our listeners, how to build the perfect weekly workout routine.
00:04:48:14 - 00:05:29:15
Unknown
One of your mantras is, you know, you want to look like an athlete, train like an athlete. And I think that's something really special that sets aside what you do for what a lot of other very well qualified people do. And in terms of the use of weights and resistance, whether or not body weight or weights in the gym or pulleys versus cardio, you know, in terms of overall health, esthetics and athleticism, is there a way that you could point to, you know, the idea that maybe people should be doing, you know, 50% resistance training and 50% cardio, maybe it's 70, 30, maybe it's 3070, and and here I'm talking about the typical person who
00:05:29:15 - 00:05:51:00
Unknown
would like to maintain or maybe even add some muscle mass, probably in particular areas for most people, as opposed to just overall mass, although we'll talk about that later. And people want to maintain a relatively low body fat percentage and be in good cardiovascular health. What's the sort of contour of a basic program that anybody could think about as a starting place?
00:05:51:02 - 00:06:07:04
Unknown
I think it's like a 6040 split, which would be leaning towards weight training, you know, strength in the and then, you know, the conditioning aspect about 40%. So if you look at it over the course of a training week, I mean, five days in a gym would be a great task. And obviously in the gym it could be done at home.
00:06:07:04 - 00:06:34:24
Unknown
But three days straight training, Monday was the Friday conditioning, Tuesday, Thursday, you know, two days. It's a pretty easy, roundabout way to split that up. Of course, depending upon training goals. And as you said, this set of goals like that will shift dramatically. But if you want to see the benefits of both, that's probably the the effect of dose restraint training and the effect of dose for conditioning at the bare minimum level, then being a much better performer conditioning wise, going to one do more than that.
00:06:35:01 - 00:06:58:00
Unknown
And in terms of the duration of those workouts, what's your suggestion? I've been weight training for about 30 years, running for about 30 years, and mainly for health and I have found that if I work hard in the gym or at resistance training for more than 60 minutes or so, it's very hard for me to recover. I start getting cold, I start getting weaker from workout to workout.
00:06:58:02 - 00:07:19:11
Unknown
But amazingly, at least to me, if I keep those workouts to about 10 minutes, 10 minutes of warm up and 55 0 minutes or so of really hard work for resistance training. And I keep the cardiovascular work about 30 to 45 minutes. I feel great and I seem to make some progress, at least some place in the workout from work out to workout.
00:07:19:13 - 00:07:34:14
Unknown
Yeah, I mean, it's those are good numbers because those are the kind of numbers that we usually preach. We try to keep our workouts to an hour or less. If possible. Now, depending upon the split that you're following through on a total body split, there's just going to be more that has to be done in a given amount of time.
00:07:34:16 - 00:07:55:16
Unknown
That, again, if you're training primarily for strength, that could prolong the workout because a longer rest times in between sets. But in general, when you're not focused on that one aspect, but the overall health picture, then you can get the job done in under an under an hour. And again, I always say on top of this, if you want to look like an athlete, train like an athlete is, you can either train longer or you can train hard, but you can't do both.
00:07:55:18 - 00:08:09:06
Unknown
And I really believe that the focus for me, I have a busy life, a lot of other things that I do, believe it or not, and it's like I want to go hard and I want to go get out. And I find that my body also response to that. I think a lot of guys bodies respond to that.
00:08:09:06 - 00:08:27:22
Unknown
And particularly as you start to get older, I think it's the is the length of the workout that actually causes more problems than the intensity of what you're doing, particularly if you're warmed up properly. Like you said, I've found personally that my warm up has had to become more of an integral part of my my workout than it ever has before.
00:08:27:24 - 00:08:47:20
Unknown
I never I could get in the gym when I was 20 and I'm going right over. I'm doing the one set to set something and I'm ready to go, you know, And I'd never do another workout, warm up set for any of the other exercises I do the rest of the day. That's not that's not true anymore, you know, And I found that as long as I'm willing to sort of give myself a little bit of a warm up, the intensity is not what bothers me.
00:08:47:20 - 00:09:08:06
Unknown
You know, I'm very much in control of the weights I use. It doesn't bother me. But if I start to go pretty long, I start to feel achy or I start to have problems. So again, depending upon age, that also plays a factor in the length. But again, I think everybody can achieve on a standard program, can achieve the results that they want within an hour.
00:09:08:08 - 00:09:38:13
Unknown
Mark Now, this is a great topic because first of all, if you do start working out, the big risk is that you go all guns blazing, right? And how many of us get in there and tear at it like two Alice sessions the first two weeks. But then, Mark, what happens? We go in too hard, body bodies not ready, but we all said we don't see the results quick enough in my life and we sort of like only right?
00:09:38:15 - 00:10:01:11
Unknown
Well, and equally, sometimes you get to the point where you might see those results after, let's say, a few weeks, then you almost plateau. Yes. And then you stop seeing the week in week or the month, the month changes. So what happens as we see at the beginning of every year, is that post-Christmas New Year, Jim, sign up and everybody gets it.
00:10:01:11 - 00:10:25:18
Unknown
And everyone's excited. And then probably around February or March, people start throwing in the towel, literally. Yes. And and I think that's down to not only, I suppose, discipline or patience. Yes. But also the fact that you haven't you're not seeing those results any more, if at all. And therefore the motivation is going. Yeah, the the there's a number of inside someone to catch.
00:10:25:18 - 00:10:54:17
Unknown
I mean let's keep in mind we just saw Jeff Cavalier who's got his own channel at a Kleenex, I believe it is very, very popular. And he was a professional sports and health coach for pro baseball players and so forth. He's now huge on YouTube. So to have Jeff and to have Dr. Andrew Hooton and get on this information is very good.
00:10:54:19 - 00:11:31:14
Unknown
So couple of thoughts on what they discussed. I think defining your exercise and workout schedule I think is a crucial step in building the habit of healthiness. So, for example, I know that I will run every Sunday is my long run, and then usually Monday, Wednesday and Friday are shorter runs and I actually plan those and book those into my calendar like a meeting.
00:11:31:16 - 00:11:53:14
Unknown
And I actually have a recurring task every single week to plan my run schedule. Okay? And because what I do is once I book that in, for example, this morning I was up very early to get a run in before we record the show, because I knew that if I didn't get it in before the show, there's too much happening after the show, so forget about it.
00:11:53:14 - 00:12:29:21
Unknown
Right? I believe that if we look at working out before we talk about how we and what we do in the workout, I think, Mark, the most fundamental lesson that I've learned is to book in your workout like a meeting. And no matter what, stick to it. It is not up for negotiation. It's not a flexible thing. So unless you're incredibly busy with work or personal commitments like exceptional things, unless that is happening, then it's a non-negotiable.
00:12:29:21 - 00:13:08:14
Unknown
So it's not like, Hey, I hit the snooze button this morning, I'll just skip it and record the show, you know? No way. Jose So I think what I'm interested to know, have you got a practice about how you think about your working out your health program? How do you ensure that you stick to it? There's a couple of there's a couple of tips that I've found over the years that would help me stay not only motivated enough to go out and do it, but also that helps me take a little bit of more ownership, I think is the word.
00:13:08:16 - 00:13:31:13
Unknown
And with that comes, I suppose, more pride, more feeling of satisfaction after you've completed whatever exercise you've planned it just by sticking to it. So I'll utilize Google calendar first of all. Yeah. So I have some key swims that I want to try and get under my belt every week. You know, generally very, very early in the morning, so on.
00:13:31:19 - 00:13:54:17
Unknown
So. Right. So those are 5 a.m. alarm buttons to hit the snooze button. Oh it's right those. But if you book it into the calendar you might even if you're not driving or running down to the location, you might even look at transport to get is so really load up the preparation the day before or even more in advance.
00:13:54:23 - 00:14:16:23
Unknown
Yes. So I like on you wake up. Yeah. For me when I wake up, I'm kind of still in that zombie mode until I've got outside and done what Andrew Huberman tells me to do. I'm still a little bit on the edge. I'm quite happy to do so. Yeah, So. So load up all of the preparation prior. As soon as I wake up, I go to my bag.
00:14:17:00 - 00:14:38:01
Unknown
30 packs. Oh, yeah. I put on this. I've already laid out and I'm out the door. I was thinking, oh you know, they're going to say I did exactly that for my run this morning because I knew it was like I was going to really it was six degrees Celsius when I woke up to run, but it was because everything was out.
00:14:38:01 - 00:14:56:02
Unknown
I could sneak out of the bedroom. I didn't wake anyone in the house, got in my gear, and I was out that door. It is that final. It's dotting the I and crossing the t of commitment. When you've got your kid out for the run in the morning or the swim in the morning, somehow that really I don't know.
00:14:56:02 - 00:15:18:02
Unknown
It creates a high level of commitment, doesn't it. Yeah. I find that the times when I don't lay out my stuff for the times when I have not necessarily confirmed it in my mind the night before, it won't happen if I haven't already planned it, the chances of me dropping out or maybe not dropping out, but the chance of me reprioritize using my time is much, much higher.
00:15:18:02 - 00:15:45:12
Unknown
Yes. So if I make a promise to myself in advance, such as scheduling it in the diary, I've got to write a reminder for every two. Oh, I've actually every day exercise for about 60 minutes. Yeah. It's very, very ingrained into my my digital habits are supposed to keep exercise front and center when it comes to my wellbeing, because it really does make such a huge difference to ownership, isn't it?
00:15:45:14 - 00:16:26:05
Unknown
It really does. And like the other point that I want to put our minds to is did you notice that Jeff said 60% weight's 40% cardio as a baseline for good health and this is something that I've been working on very recently, only really since I am. I ran in in the marathon about a month ago and post that I've said to myself, okay, I want to increase my resistance and weight training.
00:16:26:07 - 00:16:57:22
Unknown
So here's the insight. I only do 5 minutes a day of resistance training, but I'll easily walk or run for an hour a day. So I've got quite a job to rebalance on that. And the important thing is if you're like a particular type of athlete, you're going to have different ratios, different workout programs. But I think that was a huge thing here.
00:16:57:22 - 00:17:26:02
Unknown
And I think this is missed by a lot of people, myself included, which is, you need to think of your working out just generally to be healthy as this. Like real simple, you need basically to run a walk or some basic cardio swim or cycle might be another one. But then you also need to do some weight training or resistance training.
00:17:26:02 - 00:17:55:19
Unknown
So I have resistance bands that I really enjoy using. And roughly speaking, if you are exercising half an hour a day or cumulatively an hour every two days, then half of that should be with movement and cardio and the other half should be resistance training. It's just a varied general baseline and I think if we were all did that check, are we equally are we exercising at least 30 minutes a day and it's half whites or resistance and the other half is cardio?
00:17:55:19 - 00:18:25:08
Unknown
I think you'll find most of us are not in that equilibrium. I think most of us will probably find that the resistance training in weight training is the missing factor, and it becomes really important as you get older to keep shape, form and health to bring resistance training in there, or you just have the muscles over time, if they are not growing, they actually are really starting to actually shrink.
00:18:25:10 - 00:18:54:18
Unknown
And that's why, you know, old people are so frail because they don't do resistance in weight training. Mm mm. I think one of the key things that stands out to me that Mike is the resistance being a form of variation. And if you're not giving yourself that opportunity to utilize different muscle groups to utilize maybe different patterns of, of working out and exercising, your body becomes quite efficient.
00:18:54:20 - 00:19:17:22
Unknown
Finding the easiest way between A and B, doesn't it? So if you're continually doing bicep curls every day, eventually your body will figure out, Hey, he's doing bicep curls every day. I'm going to reprioritize the way that I'm feeding those muscles. And in doing so, it'll become less and less efficient. Yes, unless you're injecting in that resistance, as you say, the body is just going to get used to that.
00:19:17:23 - 00:19:43:05
Unknown
The training habit that you do every single day. And it's become your return to become less and less noticeable unless the most beneficial, I think, which is great because that's what the Moonshot show teaches us, isn't it? Well, variety growth mindset, Yeah, I would even say that there are some of the people, in fact our members who are getting the work out of their lives every single month where we push their limits.
00:19:43:05 - 00:20:21:07
Unknown
Would you not say no? I would say that there's a certain group of individuals who are in the Moonshot library or for now, let's call it the moon shots, gym, mental gym, move, who all need to be given a little bit of a roll call. So as always, it all, please welcome Bob Margolin, Ken DMA, Marjan, Connor, Rodrigo and Liza said, Mr. Bond, you're poor Kalman, Joe Ivo, Christian, Samuel, Barbara, Andre, Eric, Chris, Deborah, LSA Steve, Craig and Daniel, all of whom are now within our annual members for the Master series.
00:20:21:08 - 00:20:49:23
Unknown
Well, thank you so much guys, for your continued support. Likewise for those hot on the heels. Andrew, Ravi Everson, Karan, Rahul, PJ, Nick, Narada Ola Ingram, Doug and Emily, Harry Karthik and Tata, Marco Jet, Roger, Anna and Rau, Nick, Milan, Eric, Diana, Wade, Crystal, Dennis, Laura and Smitty, Corry, Gail, Bertram, Daniella, Mike and our brand new members, Nelson as well as Dad.
00:20:50:00 - 00:21:12:22
Unknown
Thank you so much for all those individuals and members who have joined us so, so long. Your continued support doesn't go unnoticed. But also please welcome our brand new members to the Moonshot Library, a.k.a Moonshot. Jim, thank you so much for joining us so regularly. Yeah, we are making this master series just for you, our members. We're very grateful for your support.
00:21:12:24 - 00:21:38:07
Unknown
We really get a lot out of hearing from you, so head over to your email browser and send us an email. Hello. At Moonshot Start, I jump into our patron area. Tell us your thoughts requests to show this is all for you. We really do appreciate your support and I think it is now time for us to return ourselves not to the science of success.
00:21:38:09 - 00:22:03:00
Unknown
And now we're going to do a bit of a change up. We've been working out in the gym. Mark. I think we're going to be working out at our desks now. So what's next in the Dr. Andrew Huberman Science of Success? Let's get our focusing done in a slightly different way this time. Mike, We're now going to hear from Andrew Huberman break down how we can approach our day scientifically, specifically around the ideal length of focus.
00:22:03:02 - 00:22:27:00
Unknown
The question I often get is how long should I try to focus? Well, the research literature point to the key importance of so-called of trading cycles. You've probably heard of circadian cycles or circadian biology circa the day. Circadian is about a 24 hour cycle. Well, our brain and body operate within that day or within each and every day, I should say, with 90 minute alternating cycles.
00:22:27:05 - 00:22:48:11
Unknown
So my suggestion would be anytime you're going to sit down and try and focus, you're going to try and do a focused bout of physical exercise or skill learning or musical learning, or maybe you're even just having a conversation. Maybe you're a therapist or you're attending therapy or a class. How long should it be? And the ideal duration is about 90 minutes, not exactly 90 minutes, but we can reliably say 90 minutes or less.
00:22:48:14 - 00:23:09:06
Unknown
It doesn't have to be the full 90 minutes, but trying to push yourself to be able to drop into 2 hours of focus or 3 hours of focus while possible, is not really in line with what we know about the underlying biology. Everything from our sleep states or the different stages of sleep and our waking state is divided into these 90 minute cycles or so-called or trade in cycles.
00:23:09:09 - 00:23:32:09
Unknown
So what I like to do is set a timer for 90 minutes. I acknowledge and accept the fact that under most conditions, unless I'm really pressed for a deadline and I'm optimally caffeinated, etc., the first 5 to 10 minutes of that 90 minutes are a transition time, like the warm up for focus. But I do include it in that 90 minutes and then I really try and drop into doing focused mental work or learning of some sort.
00:23:32:09 - 00:23:50:23
Unknown
Again, this could be physical as well, motor skill learning where they were running or lifting weights, etc. and really try and drop into that across the full 90 minutes. Again, accepting the fact it's not just an idea, the fact that occasionally our focus will flicker, it will jump out of focus and then a big part of being able to focus is to go back to focusing.
00:23:50:23 - 00:24:08:01
Unknown
The way I'd like you to conceptualize this, perhaps is that Arrowhead suddenly getting very, very broad, that you're focusing on many things or that arrow shifts to a different location in the room? The key is to be able to shift it back and to narrow it once again. And that's an active process, so much so that it requires a lot of metabolic energy.
00:24:08:03 - 00:24:29:24
Unknown
Your brain is the chief consumer of metabolic energy. All the calories that you consume in so-called basal metabolic rate. Most of that isn't related to movement or heartbeat or breathing, it's related to brain function. Your brain is a glutton with respect to caloric need. So understand that at the end of 90 minutes, or maybe even after 45 minutes, you might feel rather tired or even exhausted.
00:24:29:24 - 00:24:51:17
Unknown
And it's very important that after about a focus that you take at least 10 minutes and ideally as long as 30 minutes and go through what I call deliberate defocus you really want to focus on somewhat menial tasks or things that really don't require a ton of your concentration. This is starting to become a little bit of a movement out there in the kind of pop psychology and optimization world.
00:24:51:21 - 00:25:09:13
Unknown
This idea of not looking at your phone as you walk down the hall to the bathroom, certainly not looking at your phone in the bathroom and I should mention, by the way, this is a particular annoyance of mine. Have you noticed that wait times for restrooms in public places has increased substantially in the last ten years? The reason for that is not digestive, okay?
00:25:09:14 - 00:25:30:21
Unknown
It's not the gut microbiome. It might be the gut microbiome, but chances are it's because people are on their phones in the bathroom. So you're doing yourself and everybody else a favor by staying off your phone in the restroom, staying off your phone while walking down the hall. Try and give yourself some time to deliberately decompress, to let your mental states idle, to not be focused on any one thing.
00:25:30:21 - 00:25:52:05
Unknown
That period of idling is essential for your ability to focus much in the same way that rest between sets of resistance. Training or rest between exercise is vital to being able to focus and perform during the actual sets or during the actual bouts of running or cycling or whatever your particular form of exercise might be. So deliberate decompression is key.
00:25:52:05 - 00:26:13:10
Unknown
And I know this is hard because we're all being drawn in by the incredible rich array of sensory information available on our phones and other devices. But I can't emphasize this enough. Our ability to focus is not just related to what happens during the entry and movement through those focused bouts, but after those focused bouts. We really need to deliberately decompress.
00:26:13:10 - 00:26:31:24
Unknown
And of course, the ultimate decompress, the time in which we are not directing our thinking interaction is during sleep. And so it's no wonder, or I should say it holds together logically, that that deep, long lasting duration of not controlling where our mind is, that is in fact the ultimate form of restoration, even if we have very intense dreams.
00:26:32:04 - 00:26:49:18
Unknown
So take that period after each 90 minute or less focused bout right. Remember those focused bouts don't have to be full 90 minutes, 30 to 45 minutes of work. You're just done with it. Set it down and go do something for maybe five, ten, maybe even 30 minutes that is functional for your day, which is not just walking around in circles or staring up at the sky.
00:26:49:18 - 00:27:10:21
Unknown
Although if you can do that, do that. Most of us have other things to do, but do things that are rather automatic or reflexive for you and try not to do any focused reading. Try not to bring your vision into a tight location such as your phone, and try and deliberately decompress because that will allow you to drop into intense bouts of focus again, repeatedly or repeatedly throughout the day.
00:27:10:23 - 00:27:47:16
Unknown
Oh my gosh. Each one of these clips made. There is so much work to do. There's so many thoughts and ideas and recommendations. Oh, yeah, That was obviously a meteor clip for us, Mike. But I'll tell you why. I scribbled a handful of little tips and tricks, things that I'm going to start doing more often to avoid. Two big ones for me on this one, first of which is the 90 minute process, even though I have been totally unscientific, I would say that that 90 minutes is my sweet spot for deep work, right?
00:27:47:18 - 00:28:24:10
Unknown
I think that for some reason, and which I now know to be this new rhythm, I find myself, even if I'm really enjoying and I'm really set myself up and I'm doing deep work, I do need at a minimum to get up and move away from the desk at a minimum. So these 90 minute also works kind of well with the practical, you know, back and forth of work and calls and responsibilities.
00:28:24:10 - 00:28:48:15
Unknown
And so that's kind of handy. Like I don't often have like a half day slot available. But the other thing he brought up is the rest in between the focus. And, you know, you and I have done a lot of study on deep work and like clearing the decks. And for me, unsurprisingly, deep work is best in the mornings.
00:28:48:17 - 00:29:21:01
Unknown
Now what I have been working on more recently is and it's really been based on the ordering, which shows me my readiness is knowing when I need to rest and recover. Now what you hear, David sorry, Andrew Huberman talking about there is the need to have rest or downtime for your brain in between focused times and this is getting really late is specific.
00:29:21:01 - 00:29:48:14
Unknown
It's a very, very, very much a micro habit, which would be that when you have gone deep and for me, if I did to back to back of 90 minutes of in depth work, I would at a minimum in between those want to get up, move around, make a coffee, make a tea or something, then jump back in.
00:29:48:16 - 00:30:22:18
Unknown
That works for me very well. However, what I definitely notice is let's say I did two of those before lunch. Then I really need to sit outside, have lunch outside and go for a walk. And here's the interesting thing I've noticed is that I am performing better when I don't listen to a podcast, or at least a business podcast when I'm out and about and walking and stuff.
00:30:22:20 - 00:31:01:05
Unknown
What I have done is noticed that my brain is a little bit maxed out on work and as a result I might listen to something, some comedy or some history or even nothing at all, or music. And I find that that's important. This sense of cooling off between really intense work. And then what I've noticed is when I do come back to the work, I'm really fresh and I'm not like feeling that sense of fatigue that you can get if you're doing several rounds of deep work.
00:31:01:07 - 00:31:20:09
Unknown
It sort of accumulates and you're like, Oh, I think I'm done for the day kind of feeling. Actually. If you go and take a short break like I've discussed and let everything just cool down now, really interesting that there's actual real science behind it and we really kind of heard that from Andrew, didn't we? Yeah, I think you're totally right.
00:31:20:09 - 00:31:41:16
Unknown
I think what's interesting to me is the times when I have have done that and I follow a similar process to yourself as well. Mike I'll be working at home, I'll be sitting in front of computer screens and after a while it's very, very tempting just that, you know, stay put, isn't it? But at some point it's undeniable.
00:31:41:19 - 00:32:12:18
Unknown
I'll notice that either I'm maxing out my ability to sit still or the work will be getting distracted. Yeah, those moments. And this is something that I'll, I'll take away as a tip from from Huberman is actually to set timers and limitations. Yeah. So that those moments where you notice the quality let's say degrading which is something I've noticed if I'm getting really tired or I'm spinning wheels a little bit, you know, something's not quite coming out the way it should.
00:32:12:20 - 00:32:37:20
Unknown
That's the time to go out and have a break. Now, going outside for a walk is the absolute ideal situation. Yes. Stretch those eyes. Yeah. The amount of benefit that I find from just being able to get my eyes to look at something far, far away in the distance, whether it's the next door house, whether it's a tree on the top of the hill or looking out over the horizon, whatever it might be.
00:32:37:22 - 00:33:09:03
Unknown
That's a great way that I've noticed my brain being able to reset. And I quite like that break down that Huberman did, which is if you can take away your focus from a screen, which is a closed real estate, it's a very small and narrow limiting index. It reminds me of Yoko Willink, who says, Yeah, that great story where he's on on an operation and all of his men are looking down the scopes to their rifles, therefore limiting everything that they can see around them.
00:33:09:03 - 00:33:40:08
Unknown
Yeah, and he was the only one who was not looking at scope and he was therefore able to see the broader picture. Yeah. What this reminds me of is if I'm able to not focus on the phone and similar to yourself, not have headphones in and instead being able to hear and absorb, you know, maybe other people, maybe other sounds suddenly that a better, fresher, more efficient use of that break time than it would be to say, take my phone and do a telephone call on the wall.
00:33:40:10 - 00:34:23:23
Unknown
Still very efficient from a work perspective and not necessarily from a recovery and rest perspective, which is ultimately what you're trying to build into that into that routine. Abso absolutely. And you know, coming with all of that energy and effort, you know, it even if you're in a good place and things are going well, if you're working on your life's work and you're really pushing yourself, there really is a level of friction, sometimes stress and anxiety that comes with that and, just to explore just the body of work that Dr. Andrew Huberman has done.
00:34:24:00 - 00:34:48:20
Unknown
He's even got the science and the habits on how to deal with this kind of stuff. I mean, this guy's incredible, isn't he? Yeah. This next clip that we've got from Andrew Huberman, I think may be quite a useful one for those of us who have a lot on our plates at the moment. And we're trying to figure out the best way of being, let's say, more efficient or even dealing with levels of anxiety and stress.
00:34:48:22 - 00:35:16:20
Unknown
So let's hear now from Dr. Huberman. He's going to break down a little bit more for us around the idea of the psychological and physiological story. A few years ago when my laboratory got interested in studying stress in humans, we asked ourselves, what are the patterns of breathing that allow for the most rapid reduction in stress levels? And more importantly, what are the patterns of breathing that can be done in real time so that people can adjust their stress while they're still engaging in life?
00:35:16:23 - 00:35:53:08
Unknown
Right breath work classes Running off to Iselin for a weekend is a magical experience, but life demands pressing on you. That's typically when you feel stress. So it is still true that vacation long meditation retreats and massages or a nice drink if you're of drinking age, still work, but they're slow and they take you offline. The physiological side is a pattern of breathing that was actually discovered by physiologists in the thirties and that was essentially rediscovered by Professor Jack Feldman at UCLA, a world expert in the neurobiology of respiration, and by my colleague Mark Krasnow at Stanford, who studies lung function.
00:35:53:10 - 00:36:17:07
Unknown
The physiological side is a pattern of breathing that we all engage in in deep sleep when levels of carbon dioxide in our bloodstream get too high, we or our dogs, you can see your dog do this, will do a double inhale followed by an extended exhale. Children or adults for that matter, that are sobbing and lose their breath, so to speak, will also do a double inhale.
00:36:17:08 - 00:36:41:04
Unknown
Exhale. That's the spontaneous execution of what we call the physiological side. The reason it works so well to relax us is because it offloads a lot of carbon dioxide all at once. And the way it works is the following Our lungs are not just too big bags of air. We have all these little millions of sacks of air that if we were to lay them out flat, they would be as big as about a tennis court or so.
00:36:41:05 - 00:37:02:21
Unknown
The volume of air, therefore, and the volume of carbon dioxide that we can offload is tremendously high, except that we get stressed as carbon dioxide builds up in our bloodstream. And it's kind of a double whammy. These little sacks deflate now when we do a double inhale. So I'll do this now twice through my nose. Or you could do this or you could do it through your mouth, but it works best through the nose.
00:37:02:21 - 00:37:28:17
Unknown
It's inhale. And then you sneak a little bit more air in. At the very end. When you do that, you reinflate those little sacs, and when you exhale, then you discard all the carbon dioxide. It wants. So the simple way to describe this protocol is that unless you are underwater, you do a double inhale, followed by an extended exhale, and you offload the maximum amount of carbon dioxide.
00:37:28:17 - 00:37:50:07
Unknown
And we found in our laboratory and other laboratories have found that just one, two or three of those physiological sighs brings your level of stress down very, very fast. And it's a tool that you can use any time. I do hope that people will kind of watch other people or dogs as they start to relax or go down to sleep.
00:37:50:07 - 00:38:17:03
Unknown
You'll see this pattern of breathing, but again, it can be consciously driven. The other thing about breathing and the reason why exhales are so vital is the following. I know there's a lot of interest nowadays in heart rate variability. Well, most don't realize this, but your breathing is actually driving heart rate variability. So when you inhale this dome shaped muscle beneath your lungs, your diaphragm actually moves down because the lungs expand, it moves down.
00:38:17:09 - 00:38:39:11
Unknown
When you do that, you create more space in the thoracic cavity and you actually the heart gets a little bigger. It actually expands. As a consequence, blood flows more slowly through that larger volume and the brain quickly sends a signal down to the heart to speed the heart up. The short, simple version of this is inhale, speed the heart up when you exhale.
00:38:39:14 - 00:39:02:10
Unknown
The opposite is true. That dome shaped muscle, the diaphragm moves up, the space in your thoracic cavity gets a little bit smaller, the heart gets a little bit smaller, Blood moves more quickly through that small volume, and the brain sends a signal to the heart to slow the heart down. Physicians know this as respiratory sinus arrhythmia, but this is the basis of what we call heavy heart rate variability.
00:39:02:15 - 00:39:30:03
Unknown
And the simple way to remember this is any time you emphasize exhales, in other words, making them longer than your inhales, you are slowing the heart rate down, your calming your system. Any time you emphasize inhales, you make them more vigorous or longer than your exhales. You're speeding up your heart are preaching to the converted and hear my I am totally on board this and I'll tell you why.
00:39:30:05 - 00:39:54:24
Unknown
So actually I'm going to share my screen because I want to share with you a technique that uses the same actual science. And here we go. Check this out, Mark. It's called four, seven, eight breathing. So what happens is you breathe in four, four, you hold four, seven, and here's the key. You exhale four, eight, meaning that your inhale is only half the size of your exhale.
00:39:55:01 - 00:40:25:06
Unknown
And this is another scientific proven technique that we can actually cool our jets to get the nervous system into good shape, to de-stress, to calm down. It uses exactly the same principle. The key thing is, if you understand that what Dr. Andrew Huberman was talking about is breathing in, is accelerating your heart rate and obviously breathing out is a deep accelerant.
00:40:25:08 - 00:40:58:08
Unknown
So as long as you are always focusing on your breath to exhale for longer than what you inhaled, whether it's using this double inhaled technique from Dr. Andrew Huberman. Whether he's using this four, seven, eight breathing technique, this is the way that we can actually go. You know what? I'm aware then I'm a bit stressed and I want to cool my jets, breathe out for longevity and you are instantly changing your state.
00:40:58:10 - 00:41:22:08
Unknown
I, I couldn't agree more. And we've spoken about a little bit on the podcast before, both the weekly Moonshots as well as in the Master series. And it's amazing how this awareness of your breath is not necessarily something that any of us really lean into much when we're going through. You know, exams and studying when when we're younger and we children.
00:41:22:08 - 00:41:48:04
Unknown
It's very much something that you discover as you get a little bit older, isn't it? But the truth is how valuable is it, Mike, not only when obviously today we're talking about stress as well as exercise, how important breathing, getting the right pattern, the right technique going, as well as complimenting your recovery. But it's an area that touches every part of our lives.
00:41:48:07 - 00:42:21:03
Unknown
But we we somewhat take it for granted. This is something. Wait, wait. What's the one thing you do the most in your life? It'll be breathing. Yeah, right. But but I think the important takeaway for me here is, again, with the idea of this being the secrets to success and Andrew Huberman coming at us with so much not only raw data from his studies, but also the easy to digest takeaways is the fact that we can be in control of our breathing.
00:42:21:05 - 00:42:49:08
Unknown
Yes. And when we do find things very, very difficult, maybe we're lying in bed and we can't go to sleep. Or maybe we're about to walk into a really important meeting. Or maybe, Mike, we know that we've got dozens of members who support us each month. We want to come in and give the best performance we can, utilizing Breathwork techniques, ways of calming ourselves down and rehydrating ourselves, so to speak, with The oxygen that's all around us.
00:42:49:10 - 00:43:19:18
Unknown
It is one of those things that you shouldn't disregard. It's something that is there and so easy to activate, isn't it? Yeah, and I think that's what the mindset that we want to encourage all of our members and our viewers and our listeners to really pursue is that take control, take ownership for your situation. If you're feeling stressed, if you take ownership for it, then you will pursue things like the four, seven, eight technique to calm down.
00:43:19:20 - 00:43:46:08
Unknown
Don't blame the situation or others for your predicament. Just say, okay, how am I going to overcome this? Because if you engineer this mindset of overcoming and just saying, okay, as yet, we love this one. From Yoko Willink. Problems. Good. Yeah. Let's get in there and solve these things, right? These breathing techniques are a great way to alleviate how you're feeling.
00:43:46:08 - 00:44:07:09
Unknown
If you're feeling wound up and tired and stressed, focused on this, and it will transform your life. But we've got Mark, we've got one more thought. Think from doctor and then I think we do indeed. We've got one more clip from Andrew here. He's going to help us close out the show. Mike, this time very, very specific, practical, classic.
00:44:07:09 - 00:44:33:11
Unknown
Andrew in this final clip, he's now going to give us five essential foundational elements when it comes to our health. There's No replacement for these five things. Everyone needs to get sufficient amount of quality sleep. Most people need between six and eight teenagers. Young kids let them sleep as much as they want. Number two, it is important to get movement, ideally an hour a day of some sort of movement weightlifting or running or cycling or Brazilian jiu jitsu.
00:44:33:11 - 00:44:46:15
Unknown
If that's your thing, get your heart rate up, get your breathing up, you'll live longer. You'll feel better next, when sunlight get some sunlight in your eyes, ideally in the morning, if you wake up before the sun comes out, flip on bright lights and then get outside. Once the sun is out, get as much sunlight as you get nutrition.
00:44:46:16 - 00:45:06:20
Unknown
Try and get 75 to 80% of your food from non processed or minimally processed foods. Social connection. Do what you can to make the interactions that you have online and in reality with friends with family as healthy as possible. Some people are more introverted, some people are more extroverted. Just all of that. But quality, social connection. And then I think the one thing we left out is hydration.
00:45:06:23 - 00:45:34:03
Unknown
Try to drink enough water, make sure you get enough electrolytes. That's key to I guarantee if you do those five things, your mental health and physical health is going to benefits inevitably. Oh, man. Like those rules. Like we had the six keys of success from Ani. I think we just got five perfect ones. And I honestly, you know, even with electrolytes every morning I take an electrolyte tablet that's like, I'm down.
00:45:34:05 - 00:45:57:19
Unknown
Yeah, yeah. Because that's the most effective way. And I researched the right electrolytes and have the maximum nutritional value. And these are all things that we can do. Everything that and you just mentioned in our last clip, it's a choice. You can do it. There's no like, Oh, no, I can't get outside, no, I can't wake up for the sunrise.
00:45:57:23 - 00:46:28:01
Unknown
You can. And if you do it and I think this theme of compounding do it every night like his his one, try and live your weekends on the same system of diet and exercise that you live your weekdays. And then then you've really got the benefit of compounding his 365 days a week. Oh, look, even if it's 350 or 325, the vast majority of your year was being consistent and taking care of yourself, then you will be a better version of yourself.
00:46:28:01 - 00:46:49:01
Unknown
You will realize your potential, right? Yeah, absolutely. You can't imagine sitting in front of a computer expecting yourself or whatever it is that your job is. Go out, interact with other people. You can't expect yourself to be the best possible version of yourself. If you're not taking ownership of how much sleep you're getting, what you're putting in your body, are you hydrating correctly?
00:46:49:05 - 00:47:15:06
Unknown
Right. As well as exercise. You can expect yourself to grow stronger unless you are putting in the practice and the work to make yourself strong as both from a physical perspective, but also a psychological perspective too. I think that's really where the likes of Arnie, the likes of obviously Dr. Huberman today have let us make these secrets. And this science really comes down to quite foundational elements.
00:47:15:08 - 00:47:34:01
Unknown
And unless you personally take ownership of and stop putting that into your daily routine, whether it's waking up early, going out for a walk or just the first thing you put in your body, a big glass of water, it can be so simple. Yeah. And it's a choice. It's a choice. Yeah. We got three big choices, mind body.
00:47:34:01 - 00:48:04:08
Unknown
And so we covered the whole spectrum. Thanks to your curation. Having heard from the from the doctor himself, which one do you need to address from all the ideas and advice we had from Dr. Andrew? Him Which one are you like, okay, Mark, I got a list. Got a list I'm going to build into my routine. The work that Andrew Goodman is breaking down for us around focus.
00:48:04:10 - 00:48:46:09
Unknown
So I think the benefit of breathing will be something that I'll always for and and get better at. But really I love the addition and the build that he had from time blocking as well as digital minimalism. But then adding on this idea of creating physical blocks, i.e. 90 minutes and then 10 to 30 minutes of of rest of recuperation getting outside, putting away the phone, all that sort of distraction out the way, blending the work of digital minimalism into physical focus and flow suddenly to me feels like a potential secret ingredient that I was missing previously.
00:48:46:11 - 00:49:15:12
Unknown
What about yourself, Mike? Which area of movement are you going to be delving into more often today? Uh, resistance training. Yeah, that's the big one for me. I've run and walk a lot, so I need to take some of that energy and transfer that into resistance training. That's what happens when you're getting older. Mark Now you get calls when this is done.
00:49:15:14 - 00:49:42:03
Unknown
I'm already there. Exactly. Exactly. But this is it, right? This is a call to action for all of us. If we start putting into practice now, that habit formation will be so much quicker, won't it? It really, really will be. Well, Mark, thank you to you and thank you to you, our members. Today we did another master series, in fact, our 25th master series, The Science of Success, based on the work of Dr. Andrew Koopman.
00:49:42:05 - 00:50:06:16
Unknown
And we started with the Body and how to build your weekly workout program. And then we move to a rather important thing the mind and the ideal length of focused work. So really powerful, productive stuff there. But we didn't stop. In fact, we went right to where it really counts to our SO and we learned that through our breath we can reduce anxiety and stress.
00:50:06:18 - 00:50:27:11
Unknown
So take these wrap them up in the five foundational elements that Andrew Huberman believes are the keys to our success. And you will feel better. You'll be able to learn out loud with all of your fellow moonshot buddies and gals and you will be able to realize your dreams, your ambitions, your hopes. You'll be able to be the best.
00:50:27:13 - 00:50:32:07
Unknown
All of that here on the Moonshots Master series. That's a wrap.